October 2009

October 31, 2009

It is a sticky monsoon day in Mumbai, and Rabbi Avraham Berkowitz walks through the shell of Nariman House. Today, the ruined five-storey structure is testament to the ferocity of the terrorists’ incursion and their battle with Indian commandos. It seems impossible that anyone could have come out alive. All its window frames are empty. The lift is slumped at the bottom of its shaft, and giant, jagged chunks of the internal stairway and handrail are missing. At one point, a section of wall many metres high is gone, and the stairs would be open to the sky if not for a plastic draping. Some rooms appear almost untouched; in others, the walls are pulverised, the splatter-marks of gunfire everywhere.

Berkowitz is an American charged with recreating the Mumbai outpost of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, a Hasidic outreach and educational organisation that sends emissaries around the world. “We are in deep shock,” says Berkowitz, 33. “They have left a gaping hole in our community.” The questions the Lubavitch movement faces are being asked of thousands of other people in the city: what to take from tragedy, how to heal, how to go forward. But even as the organisation looks to the future, uncertainty lingers over what took place during those 48 hours last November. During the siege, six foreigners were murdered inside Nariman House and three Indians were killed on the surrounding streets. Four people from inside the house survived. The building was run by Lubavitch, and was part of a larger attack on hotels and public buildings across Mumbai that resulted in the deaths of at least 166 people. But for the terrorists themselves, Nariman House was different. It was the only Jewish target, and the terrorists would be told by their handlers in Pakistan that the lives of Jews were worth 50 times those of non-Jews. The organisers had sought it out with care. Most Mumbaikars knew of the Taj Mahal hotel. Few were aware of the small Jewish centre tucked away on a backstreet.Strangely, considering Nariman House’s central place in the attacks, the events of the siege are a mystery. The full story of what happened, of how the siege began, of the hostages who escaped, and of the baby who was rescued, has never been told.

The storage room in which Sandra Samuel and Zakir Hussain were hiding from the gunmen measured 3.5 metres by 3 metres. It was lined with shelves, two windows looked out onto grubby lanes and courtyards, and there was a stainless-steel refrigerator. A banal scene, really, but it was a sanctuary. For around three hours, Sandra, 44, a plainly dressed and dedicated nanny, and Zakir, 22, a diminutive cook with delicate, almost feminine features who called himself Jackie, had been wedged behind the fridge. “I called the police, I called our security guard,” says Jackie. “I thought this was the end for me.” There was little indication of what the men upstairs were doing with the American rabbi, his wife and son, Moshe, who was almost two, and their guests. “Nobody was speaking, there was just the moving of tables, shaking noises, bumps, things being pushed against the wall, things grinding,” says Sandra. It was approaching 1am on Thursday, November 27, 2008.

In an adjacent building, a British woman, Anna, was crouching in the hall of her apartment with her Indian husband. Anna, 41, is a thoughtful, dark-haired teacher; she didn’t want to give her real name because, in light of what happened in her adopted city, she fears becoming a target. All their windows — about 21 panes — had shattered from a blast after the gunshots and explosions had started at Nariman House at 9.45pm the previous night. So they waited on the floor for hours in the darkness, calling and receiving calls from worried relatives and friends, unsure of what was going on next door, even though Nariman House was only a few steps away. Curiously, the thing that struck Anna was the silence. It was as though the city beyond had ceased to exist. No car horns, no chatter from the street, none of the normal hum of a sprawling tropical metropolis. That night there was nothing except for gunshots, and they issued from Nariman House infrequently.

October 30, 2009

LOS ANGELES (JTA) -- There will be no eerie glow coming from your Havdalah candle on Saturday evening, Oct. 31. No boiling or toiling in your Kiddush cup or smell of sulfur in your spice box.

Shabbat will be ending, Halloween beginning, and you can use this time to light up their differences by creating a Halloween Havdalah.

It’s not that I am proposing a Goth Shabbat.

Each October our print media gives us umpteen articles about how to carve a pumpkin. Here we will also be carving, but for a totally different result the medium will be time.

What I am suggesting is using the transition from Shabbat to Halloween to accentuate the distinction between Holy Shabbat time and the secular every day.

Recent surveys show the average American home with children will spend more than $50 this year on Halloween. How much will we be spending on Havdalah?

Requiring a braided multi-wicked candle ($4), a little kosher grape juice or Kiddush wine ($4), and some cloves, nutmeg or cinnamon in a shaker, Havdalah is a wonderful atmospheric observance whose rewards continue long after the costumes have been put away and the candy gobbled.

The October horror story isn’t whether Jews celebrate Halloween -- it’s now observed largely as a secular day -- the story that should have us shaking is whether Jews celebrate Shabbat.

October 29, 2009

Ultra Orthodox Jewish women pray near a concrete and wire barrier built by Israel to secure the biblical Tomb of Rachel, Judaism's third holiest shrine, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Thursday Oct. 29, 2009. Tens of thousands of Jewish pilgrims made an annual pilgrimage Thursday to commemorate the Jewish Matriarch Rachel. AP Photo.

Why do Jews have to be protected by a concrete and wire barrier and bulletproof buses in order to pray at their third holiest shrine? Could it have something to do with Muslims trying to murder them?

The media always makes sure to mention that Judaism's Most Holy Shrine is really Islam's Third Most Holy Site.

North Hollywood, CA - Los Angeles Police arrested a gunman suspected of shooting at least two people at a synagogue in North Hollywood. Police would not confirm a report that the incident is being labeled a hate crime.

The shooting occurred at 6:19 a.m. Thursday at the Adat Yeshurun Orthodox synagogue in the 12000 block of Sylvan Street.

According to a police statement, a man with a handgun entered the synagogue and shot two people in the leg in what is being labeled as a hate crime.

The victims, both Jewish, were transported to a local hospital in stable condition, officials said.

The synagogue is located next to an elementary school. It was not immediately known whether the suspect search affected the school.

**UPDATE** 11:15 AM

VIN News has confirmed that the 2 man shot inside the shul, have non life threatening injures and will survive.

**UPDATE** 11:25 AM

KNX 1070 Radio is reporting that a member of the synagogue said the victims were shot in the parking lot, not inside the Shul. The victims were about to attend a 6:30 a.m. service, according to the witness.

"I came up the stairs from the parking lot, and I saw blood on the floor," a witness told KNX. "I saw two people were wounded. They were saying they were shot in the parking lot. They were both on the floor. Everyone was tending to them. "I come here every morning. I'd never expect anything like this."

**UPDATE** 11:27 AM

Man under the suspicion of being a suspect who was arrested earlier shown in photo below is still being held, but Police say they are not sure he is the suspect, Police say that the shooter might still be at large with very little information to go on.

**UPDATE** 11:35 AM

Police have increased police patrol around Los Angeles Jewish Centers, Police say that the Shul had Video surveillance and is being looked at at this time.

October 28, 2009

Detroit -- The leader of a black separatist Detroit mosque was shot and killed Wednesday during a series of FBI raids that resulted in charges against 12 and the death of an FBI dog.

At least six of those charged -- who face conspiracy, weapons, and stolen goods charges but not terrorism charges -- were in federal custody late Wednesday afternoon.

The case involves the Joint Terrorism Task Force and prosecutors from the national security unit of the U.S. Attorney's Office.

A complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit names Luqman Ameen Abdullah, imam of the Masjid Al-Haqq mosque in Detroit, as "a highly placed leader of a nationwide radical fundamentalist Sunni group." He was killed in a gun battle during one of the raids, according to a joint statement by federal officials.

Abdullah, 53, also known as Christopher Thomas, was the local leader of a black Muslim group that calls itself "Ummah," or the brotherhood, and wants to establish a separate state within the United States governed by Sharia law, Interim U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg and Andrew Arena, FBI special agent in charge in Detroit, said in a joint statement.

The Ummah is headed nationally by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, who is serving a state sentence for the murder of two police officers in Georgia.

A 45-page complaint alleged that Luqman Ameen Abdullah "calls his followers to an offensive jihad," "regularly preaches anti-government and anti-law enforcement rhetoric" and preaches that every Muslim should "have a weapon and should not be scared to use their weapon when needed."

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- The director of Peace Now in Israel has been barred from entering the Knesset.

Yariv Oppenheimer on Monday was barred until further notice by Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin after sending three members of his left-wing organization to enter the parliament building posing as students working on a project in order to interview right-wing lawmakers, according to Ha'aretz.

Oppenheimer and Rivlin are set to meet Thursday to discuss the ban.

The three Peace Now activists were arrested Sunday during an interview with National Union lawmaker Michael Ben-Ari. The organization told Ha'aretz it planned to make a film in the style of the Sacha Baron Cohen movie "Borat," capturing the lawmakers on film making embarrassing remarks and exposing their rightist views.

The previous week the exposed activists had entered the Knesset to interview Danny Danon of the Likud Party and Faina Kirschenbaum of the Yisrael Beiteinu party.

Danon announced plans Monday to introduce legislation that would criminalize the political activities of Peace Now and other organizations that accept funds from foreign governments. Danon has previously called for Peace Now to be stripped of its nonprofit status over its failure to publicize its foreign funding sources.

October 27, 2009

Members of the Palestinian security forces of Hamas take part in a training exercise in a street in Gaza City, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009. Israeli forces stormed Jerusalem's holiest shrine, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Nobel Sanctuary, Sunday, firing stun grenades to disperse hundreds of Palestinian protesters who were pelting them with stones. AP Photo.

Now let's deconstruct this caption. What does the second sentence have to do with the freaking photo? Furthermore, notice how the second sentence follows the AP/Reuters style sheet: Always put what Israel does, first, and put what the Palestinians did before that, second.

AP is inciting, as usual. Israeli forces did not storm the Holy Mount, they went in to disperse violent rioters.

The Transportation Ministry delivered the conclusions of the committee report on gender-segregated public bus-lines, known as 'Mehadrin' buses, to the High Court of Justice Tuesday morning.

According to the report, the segregation itself is not legal, but passengers may voluntarily segregate themselves if they so chose.

The High Court of Justice held a hearing on Tuesday on a petition demanding that the government conduct a comprehensive study of the objective need for segregated buses in the haredi sector.

On the eve of the hearing, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz informed the court that he had only received the report earlier that day and did not want to release it until he'd had time to study it.

Originally, the court ordered the ministry to prepare the report by July 20, 2008. However, the ministry kept asking for postponements.

Finally, the court set the date for the hearing on October 27, 2009, and the state announced that the report would be completed by mid-October.

The petitioners include Jerusalem-based author Naomi Ragen and the Israel Religious Action Center of the Progressive Movement. In the petition they wrote that the public bus companies operated segregated buses "in which the women are required to enter from the back door and sit in the back of the bus, while the men enter from the front doors and sit in front. Furthermore, the women are required to dress modestly. Women who oppose the arrangements that are imposed upon them and try to resist like the petitioners are humiliated and suffer from verbal harassment and threats of violence or are thrown off the bus."

Babushka would not choose to ride on one of these buses, and they should not be operated by the public transportation ministry. However, Naomi Ragen's cynical attempt to portray herself as some kind of Rosa Parks and Joan of Arc should not be taken seriously. She is a publicity-hungry author of mediocre romance novels, in which Haredi Jews are portrayed in the most ridiculous and grotesque stereotypes, including the idiotic "hole in the sheet" myth.

In Montgomery, Alabama of the 1950's, all of the buses were segregated, and a Black person had to give up a seat to a white person if the "Whites Only" section was full. This is not the case in Jerusalem, where 95% of the buses, including the bus lines which run through Mea Shearim, are open seating.

If some people demand "mehadrin" buses with segregated seating, these vehicles should be privately funded, distinctly marked, at separate bus stops, boarded only by passengers who have purchased tickets from designated kiosks.

October 26, 2009

J Street's university arm has dropped the "pro-Israel" part of the left-wing US lobby's "pro-Israel, pro-peace" slogan to avoid alienating students.

That decision was part of the message conveyed to young activists who attended a special weekend program for students ahead of J Street's first annual conference, which began on Sunday.

Students are seen as a key component of the 18-month-old organization's constituency base and the conference itself. The multi-day event has incorporated new technology and interactive forums to harness their energy and garner feedback from the audience, which swelled to 1,500 on Monday and created overflow plenary and breakout sessions.

At their earlier weekend session, the 250 participating students mapped out strategies for bringing J Street's approach to college campuses and encouraging students to join in the effort.

"We don't want to isolate people because they don't feel quite so comfortable with 'pro-Israel,' so we say 'pro-peace,'" said American University junior Lauren Barr of the "J Street U" slogan, "but behind that is 'pro-Israel.'"

Barr, secretary of the J Street U student board that decided the slogan's terminology, explained that on campus, "people feel alienated when the conversation revolves around a connection to Israel only, because people feel connected to Palestine, people feel connected to social justice, people feel connected to the Middle East."

Reporters and columnists in Hashemite Kingdom describe peace treaty with Israel as 'frigid', say 'Israel is to blame for murdering peace'

Jordanian newspapers gave little or no mention to the 15th anniversary day since the signing of Israel and Jordan's peace accord, which was ratified October 26, 1994 by the late King Hussein and late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

While the anniversary received very little mention in the kingdom's four main publication, al-Rai, Ad-Dustour, al-Arab al-Youm and al-Rad, recent clashes in Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Mosque were given wide coverage, headlines citing Jordan's warning to Israel against continued violence in Jerusalem.

Al-Arab newspaper asked its readers to express their opinions on the peace agreement, while other newspapers mostly reacted with columns and op-ed articles, which all shared the opinion that the peace treaty with Israel was frigid.

Furthermore, most commentators claimed that the kingdom's citizens don't believe there is peace at all, and agreed that "Israel is to blame for murdering the peace"

In an article titled "Peace or illusion," Dr. Hassan al-Barari wrote that according to public opinion surveys, 80% of Jordanians consider Israel to be an enemy, adding that the peace treaty with Israel did not improve its image.

"Peace did not flourish because of Israel's policies towards Palestinians. Israelis think Jordanians have no feelings or reactions to the suppression of the Palestinians; they do not see beyond their own noses, and therefore are surprised when they are faced with the rift in Jordanian-Israeli relations," wrote al-Barari, adding that peace might have withstood strategically, but failed on the public and national levels.

A TEXT book, already being used in NSW schools, claims Jewish people spread the blood of lambs on doorposts on Pesach, blames modern conflicts on “reactions of other groups to the Jewish people”, and says polygamy is “commonly practiced” in Israel.

The text book Cambridge Studies of Religion: Stage 6 has been distributed to HSC students studying religious studies. The text book is being distributed, with the publishers seemingly oblivious to the gross inaccuracies in the Jewish chapter, which could form the basis for a legal claim of racial vilification.

The book also inexplicably informs high school students that Jewish people “choose sophisticated professions such as law, medicine and scholarship” because of a focus on “family togetherness”, particularly on Shabbat.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies executive director Vic Alhadeff has met with one of the book’s authors to express serious concern about the content of the text book. But as of Monday afternoon, Cambridge University Press had not acted to remove the book from the market or recall it from schools.

Alhadeff indicated that some of the content of the book could be the basis for a legal claim of racial vilification and could potentially incite racial hatred in NSW.

“Some of the statements could perpetuate myths and inaccurate stereotypes about Judaism and the Jewish people and fuel anti-Semitism,” he said.

“This textbook should be withdrawn from circulation immediately. We have put that request to the publisher and are awaiting their response.”

October 25, 2009

JERUSALEM – The offices of Yad Vashem, the Israeli agency that memorializes the six million Jews murdered by their Nazis and their allies, received an extraordinary and even infuriating proposal recently. The grandson of Rudolf Hoess, the notorious commander of the Auschwitz death camp, offered to sell some of his grandfather’s personal effects to the museum.

The letter to the museum, which was sent several months ago and entitled “Rare objects, Auschwitz, Commander Hoess,” was short and succinct, saying: “These are several objects from the estate of Rudolf Hoess, the commander of Auschwitz: A massive, fireproof box with official insignia – a gift from Henrich Himmler, the commander of the SS, weighing 50 kilograms, a letter opener and folders, slides from Auschwitz that have never been seen publicly, letters from his period of imprisonment in Krakow. I would be very grateful for a brief answer. Sincerely, Reiner Hoess.”

The management of Yad Vashem responded with shock to the proposal and rejected it out of hand. The management of the museum expressed disgust over the desire of the criminal’s relative to profit from Holocaust memorabilia.

A high-ranking official of Yad Vashem said, “Here we must ask: did you murder and profit as well?” (The reference is to 1 Kings 21:19—INT)

However, museum officials told Rudolf Hoess’s grandson, Reiner, that he may donate the original items to the museum in order to commemorate the Nazi horror.

In an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth last night, Mr. Hoess, 44, said the idea of selling the items to Yad Vashem came up following a conversation that he had with a friend, the grandson of Baldur von Schirach, who was the leader of the Nazi youth movement, the Hitler Youth.

“These items were in the family’s possession,” Hoess said in a telephone conversation.

“We knew about them, people outside the family knew about them for a long time as well. Quite a few organizations wanted to buy them from us, including well-known media such as Der Spiegel and the Axel Springer publishing company. In the wake of Mr. von Schirach’s recommendation, I thought that it would be appropriate to sell the items to Yad Vashem. I do not want these items to get into the wrong hands.”

I don't understand why this is "horrifying" as long as the collection does not include soap or lampshades. The museum is angry that he is offering to sell these items instead of donating them, although he appears willing to donate the collection so that it should not get into "the wrong hands."

Jerusalem - During last week’s major civil defense drill charedi kehillos were mobilized to take part in a massive blood drive, according to an article in Maariv of Israel’s leading daily newspapers .

The exercise was meant to simulate a war on several fronts during which injuries among civilians and military personnel require collecting and delivering a very large number of blood units to hospitals around the country. To meet the need a decision was made to enlist the charedi community and set up a blood donation center in a charedi section of Jerusalem.

Reservists from the IDF’s blood service unit were drafted to take part in the exercise. According to Major Pinni Goldstein, head of medical equipment and blood at Central Command, the drill entailed providing 3,500 units of blood per day, compared to the 1,000 units Magen David Adom collects on a typical day.

“What was nice in this exercise was that for the first time it included the charedi community, including Chassidim from Gur and Neturei Karta taking part in the Central Command exercise. The immediate response of the charedi sector was amazing,” said Goldstein.

The drill was preceded by conversations with top charedi rabbonim and Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman (UTJ), noted Maj. Goldstein.

October 24, 2009

Palestinian men compete during a bodybuilding contest in Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 23, 2009. Approximately 20 men competed in the contest, and over 500 people attended the event. Although not the first of its kind to be held in the Gaza Strip, bodybuilding contests are rare in the Hamas controlled territory. The Arabic on the poster reads "Under the supervision of the Palestine University - The Gaza Strip Bodybuilding Hero Contest". AP Photo.

Don't they look emaciated and starving. The smuggling tunnels must be providing plenty of protein shakes and steroids.

October 22, 2009

In joint press conference with visiting Finnish counterpart, Syrian president says supports peace process based on 'land-for-peace' principle,' faults Obama Administration for failing to follow up its stated goal of Mideast peace with action. 'Until now, we have only heard headlines,' he says

"Israel must choose between occupation and peace," Syrian President Bashar Assad said Thursday, adding that the two concepts "do not go hand in hand".

"A country cannot be an occupier and at the same time work towards achieving peace," Syria's president told reporters in Damascus during a joint press conference with his Finnish President Tarja Halonen.

"I explained our commitment to peace to (Halonen)," said Assad, "The Syrian people back the government's commitment to the peace process and its principles, particularly the 'land-for-peace' principle and the UN resolutions as a basis for the diplomatic process, which was outlined at the 1991 Madrid Conference."

"To achieve peace we need a partner on the Israeli side," the Syrian president added.

Assad faulted the Obama administration for failing to follow up its stated goal of Mideast peace with action and said time was running out.

You might think Palestinian refugees would be welcomed by their Arab neighbours, yet they are denied basic rights and citizenship

A special report by Judith Miller and David Samuels

It is a cynical but time-honoured practice in Middle Eastern politics: the statesmen who decry the political and humanitarian crisis of the approximately 3.9 million Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in Gaza ignore the plight of an estimated 4.6 million Palestinians who live in Arab countries. For decades, Arab governments have justified their decision to maintain millions of stateless Palestinians as refugees in squalid camps as a means of applying pressure to Israel. The refugee problem will be solved, they say, when Israel agrees to let the Palestinians have their own state.

Yet in the two decades since the end of the Cold War, after two Gulf wars, and the rise and fall of the Oslo peace process, not a single Palestinian refugee has returned to Israel – and only a handful of ageing political functionaries have returned from neighbouring Arab countries to the West Bank and Gaza. Instead, failed peace plans and shifting political priorities have resulted in a second Palestinian "Nakba", or catastrophe – this one at hands of the Arab governments. "Marginalised, deprived of basic political and economic rights, trapped in the camps, bereft of realistic prospects, heavily armed and standing atop multiple fault lines," a report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) in Lebanon recently observed, "the refugee population constitutes a time bomb."

October 21, 2009

CAIRO – Security guards thwarted an attempted hijacking Wednesday on an EgyptAir flight from Istanbul to Cairo by overpowering a man who threatened crew members with a knife, a security official for the airline said.

A Sudanese man used a plastic knife from the in-flight meal to threaten flight attendants after the plane left Turkish airspace and demanded that the flight be diverted to Jerusalem, the official said. Guards on the flight were able to detain the man and no one was hurt, he said.

The flight landed safely at Cairo airport. The man was arrested and was being questioned by state security, the official said.

The Boeing aircraft was carrying 87 passengers, a Cairo police official said. He identified the suspect as Mohammed Hamad Nourain, 26, and said he used a passport with a phony name to board the flight.

The man told flight attendants he wanted to "liberate Jerusalem," the police official said.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to provide the information to journalists.